History Film / Cellular

* HeroInsurance: Ryan committed grand theft auto ''twice'', caused a numerous car pile-up, and carjacking to save Jessica, her husband and son.

* HeroicBystander Ryan is just a guy on the street who gets a phone call, but once he realizes it's not a prank he goes to extraordinary lengths to help Jessica.

* ChekhovsGun: Ryan's cell phone.

* SpiritualSuccessor: To ''Film/PhoneBooth'', also written by Creator/LarryCohen. That film's intentionally limited setting and claustrophobia was inverted by this film's wide-ranging action and motion.

Along the way, Sgt. Mooney (Macy)starts unraveling the trail of chaos left in Ethan and Ryan's wake, while investigating Jessica's kidnapping. [[{{Retirony}} He's about to retire]], [[SortingAlgorithmOfMortality so...]]

** When the cell phone Jessica is on with Ryan falls out of his pocket while from Ethan.

* RightManInTheWrongPlace: Ryan

** Subverted when Officer Mooney remembers Bayback's accent when she was posing as Jessica Martin.
* PlotDevice: The camcorder video of [[spoiler:Ethan and his partners mugging and murdering a pair of drug dealers which reveals them as corrupt cops.]] The latter half of the movie revolves around ensuring it can reach the police. [[spoiler:Note that the video itself is the plot device not the camcorder, as the camcorder itself is destroyed Ryan is able to save the recording on a cellphone and give it to the police.]]

** And this: "This is the final boarding call for Orly, Flight 180, with service to Paris..."

* ChekhovsNews: The TV news report of murdered drug dealers.

* ChekhovsNews: The TV report of murdered drug dealers at the police station.

High school biology teacher Jessica Martin (Basinger) is kidnapped by Ethan (Statham), who is after her family for unexplained reasons. He and his gang lock her in an attic where he smashes the landline phone to avoid her calling out. She manages to jury rig the phone to be able to dial out again-- but the rotary dial is destroyed, she can only tap out the numbers. Dialing blindly, she manages to connect with Ryan's (Evans) cellular phone. Ryan is an irresponsible commitment phobic trying to hook back up with an ex-girlfriend, he refuses to believe Jessica and thinks she's prank calling, but she pleads that if he hangs up she may not be able to reach anyone else at all. So he decides to [[GoodSamaritan believe her]] and take his phone to the police where they can decide if she's serious or not. Midway up the precinct's stairwell, he starts losing reception just as Ethan returns and starts hurting Jessica to find out where "it" is and where her husband is, and tells her he's going after her son. With no question of her and her son being in danger, Ryan undertakes a harrowing chase across the city to try to protect her son, discover why (and where) she's been kidnapped and avoid dying along the way.

** Ryan's ex-girlfriend gives him a Office Depot box.

* [[ChekhovsSkill Chekhov's Skill]]: Jessica is a biology teacher, which means she [[spoiler: knows exactly which artery to cut to kill a man in less than a minute.]]

* CurbStompBattle: Zig-zagged. [[Creator/ChrisEvans Ryan]] is a 6 foot tall, athletic, muscular young man. This is however where his advantages end. His opponents, are trained [[DirtyCop dirty cops]]. Most of them he tries to beat up are either [[CombatPragmatist caught]] [[DidntSeeThatComing off-guard]] or are taken out by Ryan using some sort of ImprovisedWeapon. In a normal fight, Ryan has no chance against any of them. [[DragonInChief Ethan]] [[Creator/JasonStatham Greer]] manages to corner Ryan and proceeds to give him a NoHoldsBarredBeatdown very easily. While Ryan towers over him, [[PintSizedPowerhouse Ethan]] simply takes him down. What few hits Ryan manages to get are because Ethan decides to let him [[BloodKnight play with him for fun]]. Once he is bored, he takes down Ryan without any effort. On the other hand, Ethan realises that Ryan is at least strong enough to give him some [[BloodFromTheMouth trouble]]. So he decides to [[LetsGetDangerous stop playing around]].

* ConfiscatedPhone: When his battery is abut to die, Ryan buys a cell phone charger at gunpoint in order to obtain instant service.

* CurbStompBattle: Zig-zagged. [[Creator/ChrisEvans Ryan]] is a 6 foot tall, atheletic, muscular young man. This is however where his advantages end. His opponents, are trained [[DirtyCop dirty cops]]. Most of them he tries to beat up are either [[CombatPragmatist caught]] [[DidntSeeThatComing off-guard]] or are taken out by Ryan using some sort of ImprovisedWeapon. In a normal fight, Ryan has no chance against any of them. [[DragonInChief Ethan]] [[Creator/JasonStatham Greer]] manages to corner Ryan and proceeds to give him a NoHoldsBarredBeatdown very easily. While Ryan towers over him, [[PintSizedPowerhouse Ethan]] simply takes him down. What few hits Ryan manages to get are because Ethan decides to let him [[BloodKnight play with him for fun]]. Once he is bored, he takes down Ryan without any effort. On the other hand, Ethan realises that Ryan is at least strong enough to give him some [[BloodFromTheMouth trouble]]. So he decides to [[LetsGetDangerous stop playing around]].

* SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome: [[Creator/ChrisEvans Ryan]] is a 6 foot tall, atheletic, muscular young man. This is however where his advantages end. His opponents, are trained [[DirtyCop dirty cops]]. Most of them he tries to beat up are either [[CombatPragmatist caught]] [[DidntSeeThatComing off-guard]] or are taken out by Ryan using some sort of ImprovisedWeapon. In a normal fight, Ryan has no chance against any of them. [[DragonInChief Ethan]] [[Creator/JasonStatham Greer]] manages to corner Ryan and proceeds to give him a NoHoldsBarredBeatdown very easily. While Ryan towers over him, [[PintSizedPowerhouse Ethan]] simply takes him down. What few hits Ryan manages to get are because Ethan decides to let him [[BloodKnight play with him for fun]]. Once he is bored, he takes down Ryan without any effort. On the other hand, Ethan realises that Ryan is at least strong enough to give him some [[BloodFromTheMouth trouble]]. So he decides to [[LetsGetDangerous stop playing around]].

* [[spoiler: DirtyCop]]: [[spoiler: The people behind the kidnapping.]]

* RealityEnsues: [[Creator/ChrisEvans Ryan]] is a 6 foot tall, atheletic, muscular young man. His opponents, however, are trained [[DirtyCop dirty cops]]. Most of them he tries to beat up are either [[CombatPragmatist caught]] [[DidntSeeThatComing off-guard]] or are taken out by Ryan using some sort of ImprovisedWeapon. In a normal fight, Ryan has no chance against any of them. [[DragonInChief Ethan]] [[Creator/JasonStatham Greer]] manages to corner Ryan and proceeds to give him a NoHoldsBarredBeatdown very easily. While Ryan towers over him, [[PintSizedPowerhouse Ethan]] simply takes him down. What few hits Ryan manages to get are because Ethan decides to let him [[BloodKnight play with him for fun]]. Once he is bored, he takes down Ryan very easily. On the other hand, Ethan realises that Ryan is at least strong enough to give him some [[BloodFromTheMouth trouble]]. So he decides to [[LetsGetDangerous stop playing around]].

* OhCrap: The look on Ryan's face when the oil trucker slams into Ryan's stolen security car is ''priceless''.

* {{Retirony}}: It's Mooney's last day on the job, and he [[spoiler:lives through the end! SubvertedTrope, ahoy!]]

* ShoutOut: ''Film/TheLordOfTheRings'' backpack, a nod to the fact that they released by New Line Cinema.

* WouldHurtAChild: The villains threaten more than once to kill Jessica's little son.

* ShoutOut: The ''Film/LordOfTheRings'' backpack, a nod to the ''Lord of the Rings'' movies also released by New Line Cinema.